Hari Aum.
My third purascharana is currently going well by the grace of God. I read an inspiring book called 'Mantra Yoga' by the mystic and yogi 'Om Swami' (not the television show personality!) recently in which he talks about the elaborate processes involved in doing purascharana. I am following my Guru Sivananda's instructions on this which are relatively simpler. Nonetheless I found this book very inspiring not least because Om Swami is a modern man from my generation who I can easily relate to. He writes in a genuine easy-to-read way. He is a well-educated middle-class Indian man with a passion for God; he says he has attained God through primarily through the practice of mantra yoga.
Now I am not a 100 % mantra yogi like Om Swami. I follow the 'integral yoga' advised by my Guru Sivananda - this includes bhakti, karma and jnana yogas (development of heart, hand and head as he says). I would love to be doing mostly mantra yoga but my circumstances currently do not permit this.
I would love to leave life in the city for at least 6 months though and do an intensive purascharana doing 6 hours japa a day. I hope this will be possible someday relatively soon.
Even if I cannot currently commit to 6 hours japa daily, after reading this book, I was reflecting that I probably can increase my daily japa commitment. This is because, by the grace of God, I have settled into a better routine with my life this year with no major upheavals as in previous years (with exams/house moving/illness of family/health problems etc). Of course, things can change anytime, any moment, but so far, things are okay this year.
I have therefore decided to cautiously increase the japa from 11 malas a day to 15 malas a day. This does not sound like much but it means one purascharana will take me 1 year and 4 months instead of 1 year an 11 months- a significant time-saver if one wants to do many purascharanas as is my plan.
My long term purascharana goal is to do 21 malas a day, which will enable me to complete a purascharana in about one year.
Any increase in daily japa is no joke, because it's not just about one day- this increase has to be kept up day after day, every single day for several months in a row without a break. One therefore needs to plan carefully when changing the number of malas per day when doing purascharana.
Anyway, I hope to complete the third purascharana sometime in October this year.
And if the 15 malas a day goes well, then I will slightly increase again to 18 malas a day (1.5 hours japa daily) for the next purascharana. Will see how things go.
I want to aim for each purascharana to take closer to one year to complete rather than the current two years- from the next purascharana onwards. This is quite possible with some time-management- just need to keep working at it.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
My third purascharana is currently going well by the grace of God. I read an inspiring book called 'Mantra Yoga' by the mystic and yogi 'Om Swami' (not the television show personality!) recently in which he talks about the elaborate processes involved in doing purascharana. I am following my Guru Sivananda's instructions on this which are relatively simpler. Nonetheless I found this book very inspiring not least because Om Swami is a modern man from my generation who I can easily relate to. He writes in a genuine easy-to-read way. He is a well-educated middle-class Indian man with a passion for God; he says he has attained God through primarily through the practice of mantra yoga.
Now I am not a 100 % mantra yogi like Om Swami. I follow the 'integral yoga' advised by my Guru Sivananda - this includes bhakti, karma and jnana yogas (development of heart, hand and head as he says). I would love to be doing mostly mantra yoga but my circumstances currently do not permit this.
I would love to leave life in the city for at least 6 months though and do an intensive purascharana doing 6 hours japa a day. I hope this will be possible someday relatively soon.
Even if I cannot currently commit to 6 hours japa daily, after reading this book, I was reflecting that I probably can increase my daily japa commitment. This is because, by the grace of God, I have settled into a better routine with my life this year with no major upheavals as in previous years (with exams/house moving/illness of family/health problems etc). Of course, things can change anytime, any moment, but so far, things are okay this year.
I have therefore decided to cautiously increase the japa from 11 malas a day to 15 malas a day. This does not sound like much but it means one purascharana will take me 1 year and 4 months instead of 1 year an 11 months- a significant time-saver if one wants to do many purascharanas as is my plan.
My long term purascharana goal is to do 21 malas a day, which will enable me to complete a purascharana in about one year.
Any increase in daily japa is no joke, because it's not just about one day- this increase has to be kept up day after day, every single day for several months in a row without a break. One therefore needs to plan carefully when changing the number of malas per day when doing purascharana.
Anyway, I hope to complete the third purascharana sometime in October this year.
And if the 15 malas a day goes well, then I will slightly increase again to 18 malas a day (1.5 hours japa daily) for the next purascharana. Will see how things go.
I want to aim for each purascharana to take closer to one year to complete rather than the current two years- from the next purascharana onwards. This is quite possible with some time-management- just need to keep working at it.
Hari Aum Tat Sat
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